Sir Elton John calls his husband David Furnish "Yoko" because he is so unpopular, the singer has revealed.

The couple married in 2014, exactly nine years after they tied the knot in a civil partnership ceremony.

In an interview with The Sun, the hitmaker said he planned to discuss gay rights with Russian president Vladimir Putin over a cup of tea.

Furnish recently took over the management of Sir Elton's business affairs and the pair have "changed some assistants".

Making reference to the difficult relationship between Beatle John Lennon's wife Yoko Ono and his fellow bandmates, he said of Furnish: "I call him Yoko now because a lot of people don't like what he's doing."

But Sir Elton insisted that Furnish's decision-making was not unpopular with everyone and that record company Universal had never been happier.

He said he planned to take up the offer to meet the real Putin after he was fooled by prank callers into thinking he was talking to the Russian president.

In the interview, Sir Elton paid tribute to the couple's two sons and said they were behind his happiness.

He also said that he loved England's sense of humour, preferring his home country to America.

"I love it over there but there's not enough irony there and it's not England. This country is absolutely lethal!," he said.

"Hence I don't go on Twitter. Things you say in jest, when you look at them in print, oh my God."